The ongoing consequences of colonization and enslavement have led to the intentional erasure of identity, culture, and the humanity of people from African and Indigenous cultures. In addition, it has led to four types of oppression:
- Ideological: Belief in racial hierarchy and that White and Whiteness is superior
- Institutional: Systems, policies, rules, and practices that are built on the ideology of the racial hierarchy
- Interpersonal: People engage with each other based on the racial hierarchy; those from privileged groups enact their privilege on people from oppressed groups (e.g. prejudice, microaggressions)
- Internalized: People who are oppressed believe the lies of the racial hierarchy (e.g., people with fairer skin tones and straight hair are favored; people of different oppressed groups have conflict with each other)
Feel What You Feel
Discovering the truth about your history can activate a range of emotions. It is so important to allow yourself to experience the emotions, notice where they land in your body, and allow them to flow over you.
